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HTC Shows Off Vive Pre's Room-Sensing Camera 

 

A room-sensing camera planted on the front of the Vive Pre was the reason the release of Valve and HTC's virtual reality headset was delayed, the companies revealed Tuesday at CES 2016.

The Vive VR headset was supposed to beat Oculus VR and Sony to the punch, coming out in the last quarter of last year instead of launching well into 2016.
A last-minute "breakthrough" required more work on the Vive headset, HTC CEO Cher Wang said last month.
It wouldn't have been fair to early adopters to release hardware just to meet the December shipping target, she said.
That breakthrough was the room-sensing camera, and it just might be a proper answer to one of VR's nagging questions: How will I know what's going on around me while I'm immersed in VR?
The camera has two primary functions. It can show a green outline of the room and objects within it at the press of a button, and the "Chaperon" feature will highlight obstructions, such as walls and furniture, in blue whenever a wearer wanders too close to something.
HTC and Valve showed off other Vive improvements. The headset itself is more compact, its strap redesigned for stability, and its displays brightened for clarity and sharpness.